He will return to demand the delivery of Puig when his criteria on the legal reform acquire firmness
The instructor of the ‘procés’ in the Supreme Court, Pablo Llarena, has seen his criteria on the reform of the Penal Code reinforced by his colleagues from the Second Chamber who sentenced the leaders of the ‘procés’. Hence, it has been ratified that the prosecution of the former president of the Generalitat Carles Puigdemont is for disobedience and for the most serious type of embezzlement, but not for aggravated public disorder, as claimed by the prosecutor’s office and the State Attorney’s Office. He also rejects the defense resources that denied any accusation.
The magistrate awaited the decision of the court that judged the ‘procés‘ to resolve the reform appeals presented by the prosecutors of the ‘procés’ and the State Legal Services against their decision not to apply the new formula for the crime of disorder to Puigdemont and the rest of the fugitives prosecuted for sedition and, instead, to keep them embezzlement in its most serious modality that can be punished with up to 12 years in prison.
Once known, is reiterated in the crimes for which the case against the fugitives is kept open and denies that this implies a limit to the accusatory principle, as the State Attorney reproached him, because he recalls that the indictment only delimits the facts, not the qualification that the parties can do with a view to the future trial.
In any case, his decision can now be appealed to the Criminal Chamber on appeal. If this is the path chosen by the defenses, the magistrate will wait to find out his criteria, although it is very unlikely that he will depart from the one marked by the ‘procés’ court, before taking a new step against the ‘ex-minister’ of Culture Lluis Puigwho is the only one of the fugitives who is not a member of the European Parliament, so he does not enjoy any immunity.
For this reason, once the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) declared that the reason why the Belgian justice refused to do so is not covered by European law, the instructor of the ‘procés’ may retry its delivery.
The CJEU ruled out that the Belgian argument to deny the surrender of Puig, consisting of the Supreme Court not being the competent court to judge him, is applicable to Euro-warrants. The sentence established that only a delivery requested with this European cooperation tool can be rejected before systemic violations of rightsand as long as the claimant country is asked about it.
As Puigdemont and Comín are members of the European Parliament, Llarena will wait to hear the second sentence that is pending in the European courts: that of the General Court of the European Union (TGUE) regarding his immunity, which is expected to be known in March. With it, the lawsuits filed by the ‘ex-president’ against the European Parliament itself will be resolved for allegedly not having sufficiently defended him against the request made by Llarena.
crime of corruption
The new petition to try to hand over Puig will focus on the crime of embezzlement of public funds, which can expedite the processing of the claim, as it is a crime of those included among those of corruption. However, the defense will argue before the Belgian courts the change suffered in the Spanish surrender request, both in the legislation and in the Eurowarrant itself.
Puigdemont’s defense sources indicated that his objective in the face of future European claims will be to try to prove systemic violations of rights by the Spanish justice system and, specifically, against a group, as they will argue is that of the Catalan separatists.